Wonderful

I forgot to mention some wonderful things that people have done for us. When we got home from the hospital yesterday, we found a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered to our house. The flowers were from my workplace, congratulating Krista on completing a major milestone in her recovery. They were so beautiful, that Krista insisted that I take a picture to remember them forever.

Also, while we were away getting the stem-cell transplant, our neighbor, Ray, had mowed our lawn for us. He didn't just stop there -- he mowed it again this weekend while we were home. How incredibly nice!

And today, people are continuing to show us kindness -- even people who don't know us. When Krista transferred from the emergency room to 6 Central, she accidentally left her cell phone on the gurney. We tried to find it everywhere in the hospital before we left, but no one had seen it and there wasn't audible anywhere by calling it either. We left without it, hoping that it would show up in hospital security over the next few days. This morning when I was talking with my mother on my cell phone, I got a call-waiting call from Krista's cell phone. Someone from Mission Laundry had found it and was calling to return it. We agreed to meet in front of Sears at a certain time. When I got there, I didn't see him anywhere. I called him, and he said he was at the entrance to Sears. I asked him which one, because the Sears at La Cumbre Plaza has an upper entrance and a lower entrance. He just said that he was at the entrance to Sears, looking out on Main Street. Main Street? That's in Santa Maria (over 50 miles away)! It wasn't really possible for him to get it back to me, so we arranged for me to pick it up tomorrow in Santa Maria. Unfortunately, I forgot that tomorrow is Krista's IVIG transfusion and after that she has an oncologist appointment.

Meanwhile, Krista had put a request out to the local homeschool group for a wheelchair, and Kathy Short said that she had one we could use. She brought it by today, and as she and her husband, Brad, were leaving, they offered to help out with any errands I might need to run. The only thing I could think of was the cell phone, so I asked if they happened to know anyone in Santa Maria. It turned out that they did know someone who regularly travels between Santa Maria and Santa Barbara and they're going to try to arrange for them to pick it up for us and delivered it down here.

In the midst of the excitement, I was also trying to find a way to reward the boys for their hard work they did this morning weeding our patio. I tried to call their friends that they had wanted to get together with, but no one was home. Becky wanted to take them to the zoo or to the beach, and I remembered that Adam had asked last week if we could go to the beach. Trevor didn't want to go to the beach, though, because he thought the water was too cold and there wasn't going to be anyone to play with. I had almost talked him into going anyway, when the phone rang. It was Alyssa Steffen, who was thinking about taking her kids to the park or the beach. She got the whole gang back together, and they all had a great time at Campus Point beach.

All these things make such a difference to me to be able to take care of Krista, and I don't know what I would do without all this support. The smallest things take such effort now. For example, she needed a bath today. The last time she took a bath, it was really an ordeal getting her out of the tub. So yesterday, I purchased a temporary railing and installed it today. As she was getting out of the tub, her feet were slipping and I realized that I forgot to put the mat down under her. Even after I got the mat, she could only get out of the tub using every ounce of strength in her. She says that it's amazing how much you use your calves getting out of a tub.

Things like that, as difficult as they are, show that she really is making progress: she ultimately got out of the tub by herself! She felt much better today, overall, even though her blood pressure is still too high (even with the additional blood pressure lowering medication). There was only one incident of bone pain and only one meal that she needed maalox afterward. The only other unusual item was that her appetite was insatiable tonight; the more she ate, the hungrier she got -- and not just any hunger, it was a false sense of starvation. And as strange as that was, it was still preferable to not being able to eat.

Shout with joy to God, all the earth!
Sing the glory of His name;
make His praise glorious!
Say to God, "How awesome are Your deeds!
So great is Your power
that Your enemies cringe before You.
All the earth bows down to You;
they sing praise to You,
they sing praise to Your name."
Come and see what God has done,
how awesome his works in man's behalf!
(Psalm 66:1-6)